"India is not our country," says Haniel Reuben, 72, one of the eldest members of a tiny community that claims to have descended from the Manasseh -- one of the biblical "lost tribes" of Israel exiled in 720 BC by Assyrian conquerors.
"Our forefathers migrated and settled here. Our home is Israel and we will be reunited with our people one day or another," Reuben said.
The Bnei Menashe, as the community is known, comprise around 7,200 members of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo tribe who live in the northeast Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur near the border with Myanmar.
Their oral history tells of a centuries-long exodus through Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet and China, all the while adhering to certain Jewish religious practices, like circumcision.
In India they were converted to Christianity by 19th century missionaries and, in reading the bible, recognised stories from their own traditions that convinced them they actually belonged to the Jewish faith.
"We are the lost tribe," insists Reuben, who lives in a ramshackle two-storey wooden home set against a scenic background of the misty, ash-coloured Manipuri foothills.
A lunisolar Jewish calendar hangs on the wall of his living room, while a mezuzah, or parchment, with verses from the Torah is fixed to the front door frame of the house in Manipur's state capital Imphal.
He prays three times a day with his eyes facing west "towards Jerusalem."
The ancestral claims of the Bnei Menashe -- rejected by other members of the Kuki-Chin-Mizo -- began to draw attention in the 1980s from Jewish organisations dedicated to identifying "lost Jews."
In the late 1990s, groups of Bnei Menashe were brought to Israel where they formally converted and settled.
But the real breakthrough came in 2005 when Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar officially recognised the entire community as "descendants of Israel" -- a crucial step in securing their "right of return."
The process was halted by new Israeli government policy in 2007, but last July the Ministerial Committee on Immigration and Absorption, agreed to the return of the remaining 7,200 Bnei Menashe.
"It is a huge project," said Yochanan Phaltual, the Indian representative for Shavei Israel, an Israeli-based organisation that reaches out to descendants of Jews around the world.
"It is very complicated as it requires the involvement of all government departments," Phaltual said.
The head of Shavei Israel, Michael Freund, who has lobbied hard for years on behalf of the Bnei Menashe, said he was confident the immigration would finally happen.
"This is simply a bureaucratic process, and like all bureaucratic processes, it takes time," Freund said in an e-mail.
"I hope that we will soon hear good news, and that the Bnei Menashe will be allowed to return to the land of their ancestors."
Living as a tiny minority poses numerous problems for people like Talya Bem, a 45-year-old widow and mother of three, particularly when it comes to observing orthodox customs and rituals.
"I was born as a Jew," Bem says. "I live in India but my heart is in Israel.
"I want to go there as soon as possible. We can't follow all the commandments of the Torah here," she adds tearfully, comforted by her 18-year-old daughter, dressed smartly in a long black skirt and purple top.
According to Phaltual, Bnei Menashe families almost never go out to eat in local restaurants or buy food from street vendors.
"Nothing is kosher here. All the eateries serve pork and we fear that our food will get mixed up with that," he said.
Manipur has a primarily agrarian economy and is one of the least developed states in India -- one of only five with a per capita income of less than 30,000 rupees ($600).
But Phaltual bristles at the suggestion that the Bnei Menashe are motivated less by religious feeling and more by the prospect of a more comfortable, material life in Israel.
"Most of our community is well-settled. It is a very wrong conception that economic considerations have fuelled our dream of return," he said.
Phaltual and Reuben both converted to Judaism in the 1990s.
"We studied the Bible the way Christians do," Reuben said. "But slowly as we grew up, we started discussing how some of our customs matched with the tradition followed by ancient Israelites."
At the Churachandpur synagogue, which boasts a small "mikveh" or pond used for ritual purification, Shlomo Haokip, 26, has been giving Hebrew classes for the past four years to help people prepare for life in Israel.
"Knowing Hebrew is one of the pre-requisites for formal conversion to Judaism in Israel," said Haokip, who lives with his family in the premises of the synagogue in Churachandpur town, 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Imphal.
"I hold classes for children during the summer vacation. We also organise Hebrew learning camps every now and then. It's a difficult language, and even I am not an expert. But once I go to Israel, I will become more fluent."
Some Bnei Menashe are less sanguine about the issue of return, and feel impatient about the delays in the immigration process and the religious and bureaucratic hoops they feel forced to jump through.
"The British baptised us during their rule of the country and we corrected the mistake by taking up Judaism again," said 31-year-old Moses, who gave just one name.
"We are Jews, why should we undergo conversion again? No one should question our identity. We don't feel welcome in India and we are not welcome in Israel. We are neither here nor there."
His angry outburst is cut short by the women of his family.
"Justice will be done," one of them tells him calmly. "We have waited for 3,000 years. We can wait a few years more."
COMMENTS (20)
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@ G Din, since you have proven yourself to be a hardened Pakistanphobe incessantly spewing religiously prejudiced vitriol, ill pretend not to be bemused by your statement ''we indinas want all humanity to be happy and find their right homes!'' Please, for humanity's sake if not your own, find yourself a cyberspace home that is not the website of another country. It would make me very happy, if not all humanity.
As for the jews, well whatever floats their boat. They can live where they so please.
Like it or not, believe it or not, But they are One of the ten Lost tribe of Israel, Israel comprises of 12 tribes in biblical times. 10 were lost, one of them, the tribe of Dan is found in Ethiopia (Ethiopian Jews) and other found is the tribe of Manasseh from North Eastern India. The rest are yet to be found and Israel is searching for its lost brethren since independence. The Bnei Menashe from Nort East India have the same cultural and tradition that backs to 3500 years old same as the tradition in the bible. There has been extensive research going on by the Rabbis from Israel and even more the Chief Rabbinate of Israel Officially Recognize them as one of the Lost Tribe. Why criticize when you have no proof to claim that they are not what they are.
@Shankar please dont give wrong information. although it 's a fact that any minority/outsider including jews were always welocme in india ,but manipur is still a hindu majority sate ,with an exception in northeast (very disappointing for cristian missionaries !! ) with all their efforts missionaries are able to convert only 37 % of tribal population of manipur other wise the majority the "meitei" people ,who follow hinduism constitutes almost 50% of population .
When Persians were prosecuted in their own land "Iran" the few of them took an asylum in India, till this day they have preserved their religion and are among the most elite people of India, JRD Tata is one of the example. All through the history of 3000 Years. Jews have been prosecuted in every country at some time or the other only exception is India. When Tibet was occupied by china, Tibetans where accepted by India along with their religion and are flourishing. The only trouble the Jews of Manipur is that they are not living among Hindu majority state of India. Yes we had a problems with Muslims and also Christians to some extent only because they take pride in converting us and are intolerant by large towards others faiths.
@Mastmalang, Sorry to disappoint u. But Manipur is a christian majority state. Nobody tried converting them to Hinduism in 3000 years. If u read they were converted to Christianity. The only places where secularism is challenged in India is where Hindus are not a majority, for eg. Kashmir where original inhabitants Hindu pandits driven out by non-Hindu majority.
All this means that People must have a "world Religion" sooner than later
FYI, Manipur is a Christian-majority state, not Hindu. After converting back to Judaism, the Christian majority community isn't making them feel welcome in Manipur any more. Note the reference to everything being pork there. Hindus don't usually eat pork.
They have Asian features just like ones around them in that region. They practiced Christianity up till 90's and yet they want to go to Israel as Jews. Hmmm . Not to mention that they will displace many Palestinians and Israel would grab more land to accommodate them. Yet Arabs living in Israel proper (Not occupied territories) cannot have their spouse migrate if they choose to marry an Arab from elsewhere, they have to move out themselves. Arabs in what is now northern Israel are living there for about 2000 years. Muslims travel to Mecca for pilgrimage but live in their respective countries. Hindus live in many countries all over the world yet have sacred places in India and they travel to India to visit their religious sites. Catholics from all over the world travel to Vatican and other places they hold sacred. They can be practicing Jews while living in India. There are more Jews living in US than in Israel. There are definitely economic reasons behind their conversion plan and desire to move permanently to Israel. There is actually resistance within Israel itself and many Jewish scholars do not consider them to be decedents of ancient Israelites.
Haha, Indians crying when the truth about their treatment of non-Hindus comes out!
Please stop trolling and whining about Pakistan. Look in your own house and clean that up first. Caste discrimination is rampant in India. One reads about wars and killings in caste-wars in the villages all the time.
If you can't even treat your own religionists well, you expect us to believe you treat non-Hindus better? Please give me a break.
@Mumbai Dude: When Indians will recognize that Islam brought concept of everyone being equal to the subcontinent. That's what attracted most people to it who are converts. It's a concept alien to Hinduism even today. Why should we look back on that system with fondness when it's such a prehistoric and discriminatory system?
@Confused: no wonder you are confused..coz u dont know the basic concept that happiness is within ones reach provided one reaches out for it.India is a spiritual land which has seen the origin of many religions and a new religion is always a wonder and aceepted with open arms.The jews are an enterprising lot and surely in India they would have found a suitable climate for prospering and happiness(as did the parsis who are riding high on their success story),,Maybe this lot of jews have left themselves to mercy of fate and that wont work..sorry!!!
It is very unusual to read some of these people allegedly talking negatively about india. they are not the first Indian Jews, tens of thousands of Jews have migrated to Israel from coastal maharashtra and kerala. I have never read any report about them that has such negative tone. Anyway Manipur is troubled state and common people live quite stressful lives there.
@Mumbai Dude! Sir I am an American of Pakistani origin, my ancestors who were Hindu Rajputs came from Rajputana and converted to Islam in the Twelfth Century. We have always been proud of our Hindu-Rajput lineage and customs. There are besides my own tribe many more Muslim-Rajput tribes in Pakistan who take an equal pride in their background. Why so, because we do not suffer from an Identity Crisis, only the people who have had problems accepting their own history would have such false claims (being Arab or Middle Eastern) of ancestry sadly over seventy percent of the population in Pakistan falls in the latter category.
And I thought in SECULAR INDIA everyone lived happily ever after :)
@ppp: Dude - pls. Judaism does have the concept of the promised land, and it is natural that these people feel a sense of affinity for it (now that it exists). They are not hypocrites. They are fortunate to have lived for so long in India, where no one tried to convert them until the British arrived. Another such group is the Jewish community in Kerala, which has recently shifted back to Israel - the only difference being that they never converted to Christianity (they are not one of the lost tribes). India is home to whoever wants to live here in peace, for as long as they want - even our people migrated here at some point of time.
@Mumbai Dude: "@from India: When will the Muslims of the subcontinent recognise that they were Hindus, just like these people have?" Or go to their land of ancestors, the Great Arabian Desert, as these home-sick Jews want to do? One way or another, we Indians want all belonging to humanity to be happy and find their rightful homes!
@from India: When will the Muslims of the subcontinent recognise that they were Hindus, just like these people have?
probably, this is the reason that jews are despiced almost wherever they went......you provide them asylum for three thousand long years, and all they do is to complain that you are not providing them with their food, for a split second in my life i agree with mohammadean approach: offer them choice to get killed or to convert, and upon attempting to reconvert, kil them.
What was their route to India? Can anyone throw some light explaining how they ended up in North East India as I assume they must have travelled from Iran, Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan to Kashmir and Northern India, just curious.
If you are not comfortable in India then please leave...who is stopping you ? By the way, we never supported persecution or any form of discrimination for the Jews in India. This is something which you must remember before leaving this place.